For those who were bowled over by Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 feature Cube, prepare yourself for that director’s next foray into the SCI-FI/horror realm: Splice.

The film, starring Adrien Brody [The Village, The Jacket, the forthcoming Giallo] and Sarah Polley [Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake], follows the exploits of two rebellious scientists who create a woman-animal hybrid, and the psychological drama that plays out between the three.

Like Ginger Snaps and many other films covered in the pages of The New Horror Handbook, Splice, due out in 2009, seems poised to utilize trappings of the horror genre to address larger societal issues — a prime quality of the “new horror” movement. Natali is particularly adept at infusing stock cinematic situations (e.g., a handful of characters trapped in a structure) with insights into trends and events that impact us all.

Stay tuned to this blog for highlights from my interview with Mr. Natali. And for the complete behind-the-scenes look at Cube, order your copy of the Handbook today!

A frenzied and well-deserved clap of the leather-gloved hands for horror author Scott Sigler who has managed to sell over 5,000 copies of his novel Infected in the first two weeks it’s been available.

Sigler, whose story is told in The New Horror Handbook, beat the New York publishing companies at their own game when he worked his butt off producing high-quality podcasts of his terror tales for years before finally landing a traditional publishing deal with Crown. Check out any of his many podcasts on iTunes to get a feel for Sigler’s unique brand of gore, beasts and playful monomania.

As exciting as it’s been to speak with big name horror film directors like Greg McLean and Eli Roth, The New Horror Handbook also will be introducing you to some up-and-comers who prove what the “new horror” is all about.

Emily Hagins made her first feature film, Pathogen, at the age of 12. She didn’t just shoot some footage one weekend with her friends and abandon the whole project once something good came on TV. She cast it, did the makeup effects, convinced stores and schools to let her shoot on their premises, landed a grant, and saw the whole thing through to DVD sales.

If that wasn’t wild enough, she had a trio of filmmakers following her around from Day One — to make a documentary about her! Zombie Girl is coming your way soon. Check out this trailer, and later this year, the behind-the-scenes stories of Emily and the Zombie Girl crew in the pages of The New Horror Handbook!

One of the best parts of working on The New Horror Handbook has been discovering first hand how cool some of these horror icons are in real life. Case in point: I fired off an e-mail to Eli Roth yesterday requesting a photo or two for the book. I arrived home a couple of hours later to find 23 emails in my inbox from Roth, each containing a high-res image. The dude rocks!

I am very proud to announce that my book about 21st century horror, The New Horror Handbook, is set to be published by BearManor Media at the end of October. After seeing the fantastic cover designed by my partner-in-crime, Pamela Norman, I’m redoubling my efforts to make sure the content of this tome will be able to live up to the book design. Keep an eye on the book’s Web page for more details as they become available.